Calgary cycle-track network officially approved: reports
Whatever controversy that resulted, Calgary's mayor says, may not have been much of a controversy at all
After going to a vote at Calgary’s city council, a network of cycling infrastructure in the city’s downtown core and the Beltline area, introduced 18 months ago as a pilot project, is officially here to stay.
Monday’s decision, the CBC reports, hinged on whether or not the project would deliver what it promised—an uptick in downtown riders.
While the findings of the pilot project were somewhat scattershot, city officials said, the findings of a “massive” consultation phase proved to be enough. “We delivered a boatload of information with this project,” said Tom Thivener, Calgary’s active transportation projects co-ordinator, describing 82 performance measures, “so the data is all there. Met some targets, didn’t meet some targets, but in the end, council made a decision to make the cycle track network pilot permanent.”
Since its introduction, the network has certainly seen its share of controversy, with residents claiming everything from disruption to traffic flow to issues with infrastructure as reasons not to support the project. Still, mayor Naheed Nenshi told CBC none of that controversy proved enough to sink the project—and the mayor went so far as to call the concerns “false.”
Saying that 825 of 850 emails received by his office were supportive, Nenshi added, “People kept saying this is controversial, but it’s controversial in the way secondary suites are controversial, which is controversial around the council table.” In other words, the reception on the ground—from active riders—was very different, and very encouraging. Coming in at $5.5 million—$1.65 million below what was expected by council, the CBC notes—Nenshi isn’t even sure it’ll prove that controversial.
“In fact, as it turned out,” Nenshi said, “not that controversial around the council table.”
